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Showing content with the highest reputation on 06/01/20 in all areas
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a few observations from a person who worked in corrections back in the 90s and personally saw how cops dealt with minor citizens on hundreds/thousands o' occasions. admitted temporal remote. we worked at a juvenile detention facility as a "counselor." the job title were a bit misleading as while we did counsel near constant, our main job were security/intake and j-unit staff. our j-unit were high security, housing offenders who were being held on such charges as rape and murder or including residents who were otherwise too violent to be housed with other kids. 'course calling 'em kids could be misleading as the j-unit folks were usual 'tween sixteen and seventeen and were never ceasing to amaze us just how many such kids were 6'4" and 240-300 lbs. sheesh. each unit held, on average, 'tween 25 and 45 residents. doesn't take a math genius to figure out how many kids were held at the hall at any one time given basic understanding o' english alphabet and some simple multiplication, yes? summer were most dense populated season for the hall and we would get severe overcrowding past capacity with as many as three kids housed in a room designed for one. sidenote: more than a few kids would admit they purposefully got busted during the summer 'cause at least the hall had ac. staff at the hall were diverse. white and male were perhaps the most represented demographic 'mongst staff, but nowhere near population levels. females, regardless o' race, were a bit underrepresented. contact sport experience were common-- many football players from local colleges. in spite o' fact there were much diversity amongst the frontline staff at the juvenile hall and probation in general, there were a noticeable skew towards white and male mongst the supervisors. unlike cops, "counselors" at the hall were all having a 4-year degree, even part-timers such as Gromnir. were kinda standard in the area for sheriff department noobs to start at the county jail while probation department noobs started at juvenile hall. we worked at the hall for 'tween 20 and 60 hours a week for 'bout three years while simultaneous doing the full-time student bit. we needed money. ... am thinking it would be difficult to communicate the scope o' casual brutality which is endemic in law enforcement. am suspecting there were a fair 'mount o' racism involved in the use o' violence we saw daily, but perhaps not in the way one might expect. regardless, am only imagining the degree o' valid rage the population would embrace if Gromnir had somehow secret filmed an ordinary week at the hall and then released "highlights" to the public. again, regardless o' size, am still talking 'bout kids 'cause is a juvenile hall situation. even so, "agitation," particular once there were any kinda reasonable threat to staff or other residents, were handled swiftly and decisively. the common slang for taking an unruly resident to the ground was referred to as a "dip." as you might imagine, it were not uncommon for a resident to become injured when dipped by a cop or probation counselor during the intake process. while we never saw anybody place a knee to the back o' the neck o' a kid, we did see kids twisted up in intentional unpleasant positions until they became compliant. as a matter o' fact, our original training were referred to as pain compliance before a lawsuit resulted in changes. training didn't change much but name were altered to MAB. sidenote: an armbar followed by a circle down to the prone position were our de facto move, but am admitting, if forced into a grapple, we used outer reap throw on more than one occasion. can google vids if you wish. concrete walls and floors in confined areas meant such moves, more than once, resulted in at least minor injuries. but again, am talking 'bout kids. in spite o' fact Gromnir were more reserved 'bout placing hands on a resident than many o' our fellows, if you had video compilation o' every single time we dipped a kid, it would look terrible, 'cause it were terrible. j-unit were split into two wings. why not just one big unit instead o' a "bubble" separating two? gangs. if you had nortenos and surenos or crips and bloods in same living space, they would eventual go after each other en masse. the thing is, there were just too many gangs and too many personal grievances to prevent such mass combats from happening, and happening all too often. there were dozens o' asian gangs and the peckerwoods and aryan brotherhood had a presence too. try and keep track o' all the vendettas going on outside the hall to predict when such stuff would become a conflagration in the hall were beyond the pay grade o' a part-timer such as Gromnir. nevertheless, we would be one o' the two staff, as often as not, on the floor in j-unit watching for any sign o' aggression beyond the normal level expected when you got a bunch o' killers and rapists and car jackers and l00ns on/off their meds. we never left work w/o a serious tension headache. stressful. our stress were in spite o' fact we had a reputation 'mongst the residents such that badness were less likely to happen when we worked. a kid awaiting trial for double homicide explained it to us once when the discussion o' which staff they never messed with came up during a commercial break o' tv watching. apparently Gromnir has "serial killer eyes," whatever that means. have a person who has killed two people tell us we got serial killer eyes were... disconcerting. we worked with a few staff who were not reserved 'bout placing their hands on residents. our easiest days in j-unit were the ones we worked with mr. B_____, an ex-college football player at 'bout 6'2" and 280 pounds. mr. B_____ were not only skilled at communicating and counseling residents, he were an intimidating presence who would not hesitate to lay hands on a resident. never seemed personal for mr. B_______, but he were not gentle and video compilation woulda' made him seem monstrous. a different mr. B_______ we worked along side were a couple inches taller and a few pounds heavier than his unrelated but near twin, but he were not near as effective a staff member. the other mr. B_______ took things personal and he were clear looking for an excuse to prove his toughness. kids became agitated in general when the other mr. B_____ were working, making our job tougher. both mr. B were black. we didn't consider valid any racial angle to the propensity for violence o' either mr. B. however, we did feel some sympathy for a few o' our white and male colleagues as they were often accused o' racial motivation for their actions by residents 'cause the kids knew it were an effective indefensible accusation. sadly, the one thing which would get you universal %$#@ed as a staff member at the hall is the perception o' weakness or fear. this is where our whole long post kinda gets to real point. whether were cops bringing in residents or staff dealing with kids in units, you couldn't show weakness or you would never hear the end o' it. once you got a reputation for hesitancy or fearfulness, you would be mocked open and taken advantage of at every opportunity. job would become impossible difficult if you were constant being tested. most juvenile hall staff quit once they developed a reputation as being weak. so, how do you prove you ain't afraid... 'cause not everybody has serial killer eyes. the f'ing attitude test. am suspecting has been 'round as long as there has been cops. is not specific race-based, but is in fact universal. if a suspect fails the attitude test, the ordinary cop feels compelled to act. is not written in law anywheres, but can't look weak in front o' the suspect or fellow cops neither. the cop must do something. all too often, "do something" is including violence. intimidating men get less leeway with the attitude test. why? obvious. if a 112 pound nerdling with a pocket protector and glasses get mouthy with a cop, is there gonna be a real fear in the encounter? could' be and depends on the situation, but a large man gets less wiggle-room from attitude test 'cause is ultimately 'bout fear. is 'bout perception o' looking weak. if you fail the attitude test and create a situation where the cop needs defend his reputation against perceived weakness, chances are better than fair you are gonna suffer violence at the hands o' a cop. yes, there is too many people who discover they like the rush which comes from twisting up another human being. unlike gd, we do not believe the nature o' the cop job is a magnet for such people. the a-hole cops who enjoy hurting others learn to love their job, and they ain't self-aware enough to recognize how a fail o' the attitude test is NOT a reasonable excuse to hurt others. the #1 factor in decreasing police excessive force complaints is educational level. call it correlative rather than causation not much matter to us. is simple fact that regardless o' race or hierarchy level, as education level increases, excessive force complaints decrease. regardless, violence amongst US law enforcement is pervasive enough such that it is ordinary. the problem is compounded by the universal adoption by cops everywhere, to varying degrees, o' the attitude test. we got a well-armed populace which means cops, in every encounter, need be afraid for their lives. fearful and criminally uneducated is not a great combination and yet such is the norm for most o' US police. is a tough job to be finding and retaining enough prospects even with relative good pay. we always condemn wiki, so we deserve rebuke for linking, but look at list and recognize the fed has absolute no jurisdiction or authority over any o' state/county/municipal police departments save for general funding provided to State, which often has little/negligible impact on individual municipalities anyways. try and fix police violence at a national level may be required, but is actual prohibited. fubar. ... will cheese off vol, but am thinking the way to best address excessive force complaints 'gainst cops is to hire educated women to be cops. sexist? *shrug* would be legal hurdles as well, but blame on enculturation or biology or whatnot and result is in american women is more likely to wanna talk through problems than our men. our three years o' experience don't give us some special kinda insight but we did observe how women cops and juvenile hall staff were no less effective even if they were less quick to getting to the dipping. more education and more women fixes problems.... not just cop problems neither. HA! Good Fun!6 points
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The Elder Scrolls Online My vampire dunmer nightblade deserves a Morag Tong girlfriend.3 points
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The witches I've known have never said anything about the 'unseeable' vs other religions, given that their religion is polytheistic...2 points
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Serial Cleaner, courtesy of @ShadySands. A very pleasant ~5-hour game (right about the time I like for simple-but-novel indie game concepts) about being hired by murderers to clean up dead bodies left behind while cops are patrolling the crime scene. Get in, avoid the cops, clean up, get out. Simple, but I thought pretty enjoyable and well-made for what it is. Thanks, Shady.2 points
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OK, here's what I implemented for 1.1 : Nerfs & tweaks : Refer this link for the reason and debates about these changes : https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/114874-op-classes/ Brilliant : Now only restore spell Slot up to Tier 3 for Priests, Wizards and Druids. His Heart Did Fill with the Light of the Dawn : Removed the buff from 1.0. Since I initially wanted to make it more comparable to Ancestor's Memory and I've nerfed Brilliant in 1.1. Now it is the only ability in the game (apart Blood Sacrifice) able to restore Spell Slots above Tier 4. Blood Mage : Blood Sacrifice Recovery to 3s Added a -100% healing received for base 6s when using Blood Sacrifice, to make it more tricky to use. Minor/Medium/Major blood sacrifice now restore spell Tier up to Tier 3/6/9 as intended (and not 4/7/9, thanks @Noqn for pointing it) Tactician : Tactical Dilemna now activates on Flanked or Hurt or Below (less than 75% health) and gives +50% recovery malus. I wanted Tactician to have a big drawback for all the goodies it gets. This one sort of Mirrors Streetfighter. Wall of Draining : Now only add 0.25s to beneficial effects per ennemy hit every second. That is equivalent to +33%/+100%/+300%/Infinite Duration bonus when hitting 1/2/3/4 foes. You really need to hit much more foes reliably to get infinite duration. That doesn't prevent completely OP combs, but makes them more situational and more tricky to get. To compensate, it now removes 2s from their beneficial effects instead of -1s. Now correctly displayed as foe-only (it was incorrectly displayed as hitting allies when casting). Buffs (Mostly to address the general problem of Single Class Martial ressources) : Stunning Shot : add 10% chance Bond on Crit Heart Piercer : back to 4 bonds (1.0 tuned it to 3), but Enfeebled set to infinite duration (I wanted it to be a sort of passive) Distracting Training : in addition to my previous duration buff to 15s, it is now allowed it to work on any Attack (not just melee), which is very good with Bonded Fury. Wall of Flashing Steel : add 10% chance Guile on Crit Vengeful Defeat : add 2 Rages on Unconscious Wall of Force : Now correctly displayed as foe-only (it was incorrectly displayed as hitting allies when casting). Here are the files below : BalancePolishingModBuffs 1.1.zip BalancePolishingModNerfs 1.1.zip BalancePolishingSummonRebalance 1.1.zip2 points
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@Gromnir interesting perspective. IMO another way to help "fix" policing is to minimize the level to which LE needs to interact with the public by decriminalizing victimless "crimes" like simple drug possession, marijuana for example. It reduces their work load and lowers the tension between the police and people who otherwise would never come in contact with them.2 points
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That's actually a pretty ingeniusly simple solution. It gets rid of the most egregious combos and roughly balances martial and caster effects from brilliant. There are still a few disproportionately powerful spells to come back so easily but at this point it's probably a problem more with those spells. It's not perfect, but I think the simplicity is nice because it's easier to reason about and less brainspace to devote to the mechanics of it. Honestly if OBS had done that with brilliant, I'd be mostly happy with it as an inspiration.2 points
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Here is a link to a google doc that lists (almost) every build after 09 May 2019. Builds listed follow two criteria: 1. It had commentary after 09 May 2019. 2. It is mostly plug and play. These boards are a veritable treasure trove of Deadfire knowledge, but most people won't bother reading any of it. Builds listed must be mostly playable after less a minute of reading. If it follows these two rules, the build is listed. Little to no curation has been done on my part. https://docs.google.com/document/d/10yKVvE3jHyu9uHso-dAtwV7jrL7K3jdBP3pxVgH1gpM/edit?usp=sharing I've been a lurker here for many years. Thanks to everyone asking questions and answering!1 point
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I'm not. With something as large as this there are many, many bucks. Beautiful bucks. To go around Trumps' speech was indeed useless, had to laugh at him talking about "offense to God" and somehow working in defending Second Amendment rights in, in this situation. Also, the US has ONE law, One beautiful law.1 point
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"he is singularly responsible for riots that have left 16 people dead, countless injured, thousands of people financially ruined, and millions of dollars of property destroyed." No, he isn't. He is responsible for his own actions. he is responisble for the murder HE committed. How about some personal repsosnibility for those committing robber, assault, and murder? They are 100% responsible for their actions just as he is for his. PERIOD. Don't give others a free pass for their own evil chocies because he is a douchebag murderer.1 point
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As I was drinking my morning coffee when I heard the news channel say they had reopened the state facilities. So I sprang from my chair and went and got my emissions test and license plate sticker. Timing is everything! It only took me 20 minutes to get everything done but by the time I left the line was already snaking around the building. Suckers.1 point
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It is impressive. Especially when you use real black powder and not the synthetic stuff. It is a big boom, big cloud of smoke and a scary amount of damage with the right load.1 point
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Going back to work today for the first time in near three months. I heard they rearranged the office. This ought to be interesting1 point
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Unless you're a workaholic, the amount of lost time doing a job like that hardly ever ends up being worth it. I've got too many other things I need or want to do to willingly waste away all my waking hours for a job. Salary, especially if you're in anything computer related (IT, programming, whatever), is just about the worst thing you can sign on for if you expect to ever not be working. A work culture that expects you to always be over your hours or "you're not working hard enough" is one I'm going to jump ship from as soon as humanly possible.1 point
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I agree. By now we should be cautious with "it's simple" - but this seams to be the most simple (yet practicable) solution without making Brilliant too boring (like +3 PL might be). I also get some "PoE Spell Mastery" vibes. Which is nice.1 point
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The first 50 give you skill points to buy or upgrade abilities. Beyond 50 are champion levels and leveling earns you champion points which act kinda like the constellation tree from Skyrim with giving buffs rather than abilities.1 point
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Ha. I normally don't mind gem RNG - tons of weapons and stuff in the game, if I don't have mats to enchant something I planned, I can enchant something else with mats I have and possibly discover shiny new gear I didn't pay attention to before - but pyrite is a nasty little exception to that. I still remember unfondly the run with nary a drop of that blighted thing.1 point
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I'm around 10 miles where some of the protests are taking place thanks to a coordinated BLM effort to make this thing global. There's no hell to bad for George Soros and the cronies that support him.1 point
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That is a bit the reason why I modded Adra Ban to be in Una's Shop (for 10 000 gold each) : there are enough Adra Bans (with other alternate ingredients) for you optimal party set up. So the only thing it does is forcing player to use meta knowledge and party planning. This is more annoying than actually limitating.1 point
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Boss number 7 down in Dark Souls 2 - Belfry Gargoyles. I needed only 4 Tries this time It was much harder to get to the bell to open the door to the fog gate, than to defeat the encounter, the small dwarfs with bows/crossbows were very annoying Very similar to DS1 Gargoyle Fight.1 point
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O.J. SIMPSON SAYS MURDERERS NEED TO BE PUT IN JAIL1 point
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Many? Sure, but those games land in mediocare RPG category, and don't get praised as a new gold standard for an RPG. Divinity2 is a mediocare campaign built in an excellent engine. And while I am willing to praise D:OS2 for quite a few things, story and characters aren't them. I have seen far worse, I have seen far better.1 point
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Depends. I used to work a part-time job (from home too) where I was glued to the chair for the duration and even bathroom breaks were a problem because work would pile up and customers got ornery. I didn't do 160 hours a month, but weekly I did more than 40. Everyone thought I was busting my butt, including my boss. A friend of mine figured she'd work more hours in the same job and she ended up with anxiety and sleep problems. On the other hand, I remember some low-level sysadmins at the last two big corps I've worked at doing very little actual work in their nominal 8 hours. I'd appreciate if you could quote the post(s) from where you got the idea that anyone is expecting to become a millionaire from working a full-time job, but regardless, I think it's reasonable that giving a business 50% of your waking time should be enough to make a decent living.1 point
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It also works with Avenging Storm (every lightning during the empowered duration will trigger the Least Unstable Coil). I use it with dual mortars + Avenging Storm from time to time because one volley with Blinding Smoke is enough to trigger Brilliant if you hit enough enemies. I suspect Relentless Storm would also do this and maybe even Nature's Terror but I didn't test them.1 point
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Work also with the druid' great maelstrom, like magician' pl9 meteors and salvo missiles, for solo classes. I try differents things and with a cipher, detonation against a near death ennemie surround by anothers ones is going to trigger as much inspiration than the number of ennemies hit by the explosion, that give a tactical dimension to use the empowored point. As a druid, twin stones may give you many inspirations , 3 au maximum with my tests, but the real star is venombloom, triggering all the inspirations (as long as there are enough ennemies) and refreshing every 6 secondes like the first time, as long as ennemies are affected too. This is intersting for te triggering cause if there are some items or abilities that work on the same mecanic, i mean that can be interesting to favorise concussives and salvo missiles and meteor swarm with the proc chance of the evoker , maybe?1 point
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That's why they like hiring fresh grads, they are always stupid and like to be asses waiting to be ridden0 points